“Undocumented in the Pandemic,” a new documentary from The Marshall Project, is produced in partnership with FRONTLINE (PBS) with support from the Pulitzer Center.
Norma settled in with a blanket on the floor of her mother-in-law’s living room in suburban New Jersey. Her 7-year-old twins and 9-year-old daughter slept on a small mattress, while her two older children passed out foot-to-head on a couch. It was April 2, the last night they would have a guaranteed place to sleep. Norma’s mother-in-law had tested positive for COVID-19 and was returning home from the hospital. They had to leave.
It had been several weeks since New Jersey had declared a state of emergency, as much of the Northeast became an epicenter for the spread of coronavirus in the United States and the world.
Early the next morning, the five children packed their belongings into the blue SUV that Norma’s husband, Jesus, had left behind when he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November.
As they piled into the car, Norma’s phone rang. It was a call from her husband at the detention center.
“Jesus, we have nowhere else to go,” Norma sobbed into the phone.
In a moving portrait of a family adrift, “Undocumented in the Pandemic” follows a mother in the midst of a global crisis, struggling to provide for her five children while she fights for the release of her husband from a detention center as the virus spread through it.
Under the Trump administration, the country’s detention system has vastly expanded — from about 34,000 detainees held daily when he took office to more than 51,000 a day last year. By early April, the detention centers had become hotbeds of infection. Since then, despite limited testing, at least 4,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in ICE detention.
Norma and Jesus both came to the United States fleeing gang violence in Honduras. They met in New Jersey, where they settled and had three children, along with the two children Norma brought from Honduras. ICE detained Jesus in 2011, but released him, allowing him to remain in the country and work while his immigration case was pending.
One night in October 2019, Jesus and Norma had a fight. Worrying that Jesus was out of control, Norma called the police. The local police arrested Jesus and charged him with simple assault, which a judge dismissed a week later. But when the police fingerprinted him, ICE was automatically alerted to his whereabouts, and after 19 years of living and working in the United States, Jesus was placed in immigrant detention.
Jesus’ detention upended their lives, as Norma struggled to find work and a home for their children. But her fears and challenges were soon compounded when the virus began to spread through the country’s detention centers. As she and her children desperately looked for housing, they prayed Jesus wouldn’t fall sick, while more than 80 detainees and 60 guards at the facility where he was held tested positive.
Norma’s family is among the estimated 10 million undocumented people in the United States, many of whom have little access to health services and are at high risk of homelessness and unemployment during the crisis.
A collaboration between The Marshall Project and FRONTLINE (PBS), this powerful film captures a critical moment for a family on the brink, trying to survive a deadly virus and the threat of homelesseness while trying to navigate the far-reaching immigrant detention system.
Credits
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Emily Kassie and Ben C. Solomon
PRODUCED BY
Emily Kassie, Ben C. Solomon and Will Miller
SENIOR PRODUCERS
Callie T. Wiser and Frank Koughan
EDITED BY
Alejandro Valdés-Rochin and Ben C. Solomon
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Will Miller and Emily Kassie
ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ben C. Solomon and Alex Pritz
DRONE PHOTOGRAPHY
Ben C. Solomon
MUSIC
APM
ADDITIONAL SOUND DESIGN
Ben C. Solomon
ONLINE EDITOR/COLORISTS
David Bigelow and Arnie Harchik
SOUND MIX
Christopher D. Anderson, C.A.S. and Jim Sullivan
TRANSLATORS
Rosa Tuiran and Alan Barbaran
BOOKKEEPER
Helen Yung
LEGAL
John Ives
FOR THE MARSHALL PROJECT
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS & STRATEGY
Ruth Baldwin
MANAGING EDITOR
Geraldine Sealey
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Susan Chira
FOR FRONTLINE
EDITOR
Deb Holland
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Tim Mangini
SENIOR CONTRACTS MANAGER
Gianna DeGiulio
BUSINESS MANAGER
Sue Tufts
BUSINESS DIRECTOR
Mary Sullivan
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT
Ambika Kandasamy
DIGITAL WRITER & AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIST
Patrice Taddonio
SERIES PUBLICITY MANAGER
Anne Husted
SENIOR DEVELOPER
Anthony DeLorenzo
LEAD DESIGNER FOR DIGITAL
Dan Nolan
FRONTLINE/COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL FELLOWSHIP ABRAMS JOURNALISM FELLOW
Dan Glaun
DIGITAL PRODUCER / EDITOR
Miles Alvord
DIGITAL REPORTER & PRODUCER
Priyanka Boghani
EDITORIAL COORDINATING PRODUCER
Katherine Griwert
POST COORDINATING PRODUCER
Robin Parmelee
SPECIAL COUNSEL
Dale Cohen
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL VIDEO
Carla Borras
SENIOR EDITOR & DIRECTOR OF LOCAL PROJECTS
Sarah Childress
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Jim Bracciale
MANAGING EDITOR
Andrew Metz
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Raney Aronson-Rath
FOR WGBH OUTPOST
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Megan McGough Christian
SENIOR PROMOTION PRODUCER
Missy Frederick
SENIOR EDITOR
Barry Clegg
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Brenna Verre
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Joey Mullin
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT & DIGITAL ASSISTANT EDITOR
Tessa Maguire
A FRONTLINE Production with Five O’Clock Films in association with The Marshall Project and the Pulitzer Center
Original funding for this program was provided by public television stations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler.